Out of due season

Behold the Great Dismal Swamp, a sodden near-wilderness between the James River of Virginia and the Albemarle Sound of North Carolina.

In the swamp are the origins of the Pasquotank River, which drains into the Albemarle Sound at Elizabeth City. Along its upper reaches, there will appear wind farms, where the ground is too low and wet to till.

But upwards of these new-minted towers of virtue about to built on sand, the ospreys play, the snakes climb the trees, and even the insects keep silent at noon.

This painting is about a third of the way done. Already it makes me feel warm during the short days of the year.

We set some wild places aside and feel proud; we fail to wreck others, and fee humble. Rightly so.